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How to Read an ABA 509 Report

The Standard 509 disclosure is the one document every ABA-accredited law school must publish every year. This guide walks through what each section means, where the numbers mislead, and links to the 509 report for all 196 schools.

What this is. Every figure referenced here comes from each school's own filing to the ABA, published in the Required Disclosures database. The 509 is a standard format, so the same line on two schools is directly comparable. Where a school did not report a figure, it is marked not reported — nothing here is filled in with an average or an estimate.

Why the 509 report matters

A school's own website highlights what it wants you to see. The 509 is what the school is required by rule to disclose, in the same format across all 196 schools — admissions, cost, aid, bar passage and employment. That makes it the only place where two schools' numbers can be lined up against each other without guessing at the definitions. Read it before you read anything the admissions office wrote.

The sections, and what to look for

Admissions

Applications, offers of admission, and enrollees. Divide offers by applications for the acceptance rate, and enrollees by offers for the yield. Both matter: a low acceptance rate means little if almost nobody who is admitted chooses to attend. Watch the absolute class size too — a 10-point swing in acceptance rate means very different things at a school that enrols 60 and one that enrols 400.

Tuition and fees

Schools report tuition either as a full-time annual figure or per credit hour. The two are not comparable and should never be mixed in a ranking — a credit-hour price tells you nothing about a three-year total. Living costs (on-campus and off-campus) are reported separately and are part of the real cost of attendance even though they are not billed to the school.

Grant aid and scholarships

The disclosure shows the share of students receiving grants and the median grant among full-time recipients, split into four bands (under half tuition, half to full, full, and over full). Two schools with the same sticker price can differ enormously in what students actually pay. Also read the conditional-scholarship section: it discloses how many students kept their scholarship after the first year and how many lost it.

Bar passage

Reported as first-time passage (students who passed on the first attempt) and ultimate passage (including those who retook). They measure different things: ultimate is the better guide to whether graduates of that school eventually get licensed; first-time is what state bar associations publish and is most useful for comparing schools within the same jurisdiction. The two are not interchangeable.

Employment outcomes

The 509 employment section reports where graduates work — JD-required jobs, JD-advantage jobs, and school-funded positions — and how many sat for the bar. A high employment rate that leans on JD-advantage or short-term roles is not the same as graduates landing lawyer jobs.

Class composition

The 509 also reports the academic credentials of the entering class (LSAT and GPA at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles) and, where reported, demographic breakdowns. The LSAT and GPA medians are the clearest signal of how competitive admission is.

What the 509 report does not tell you

• It measures outcomes, not quality. A high bar passage or employment rate partly reflects who the school admits and the difficulty of its state's bar exam. Compare a school against others in the same state or with similar selectivity.
• It is one cohort, not a trend. The numbers describe a single recent graduating class. Large moves at small schools are usually cohort variation, not a change in the programme.
• It does not predict your scholarship. The aid figures are school-wide medians; your own offer depends on your credentials relative to that year's class.

All 196 law schools — 509 reports by state

Each school links to its own 509 disclosure page, laid out section by section. States link to the full list of schools in that state.

Source: ABA Standard 509 Required Disclosures, 2025 reporting cycle, as published in the Required Disclosures database. Figures are the school's own filing; a missing figure is a reporting gap, not a zero. Not legal or financial advice.